Monterrey to star in 2024 Invest in Latam tour

For the first time in six years, the Latam Mobility Summit that organizes Invest in Latam will include in 2024 the Mexican state of Nuevo León, the region’s top nearshoring destination and the center of attention for its electromobility agenda. 

Although the 2023 tour will end this year in Mexico City, with the summit being held October 10-11, the 2024 tour will start in February in Nuevo León state capital Monterrey due to the boom in planned investments in the automobile sector, among others. 

“It is the city with the most investment potential in terms of mobility in Latin America,” Invest in Latam mobility leader Andrés García (pictured) said Thursday during a presentation in Mexico City. 

“If there is a place in Latin America for investments, supply chains, auto parts and imports and exports due to nearshoring, it is Nuevo León,” he said, adding that the event’s team already met with officials from the northern state.

Earlier this week, the head of Nuevo León's renewable energy promotion agency, Eduardo Daniel Sánchez Martínez, said the state government had identified 165 investments announcements by companies in the last two years, totaling about US$25bn. 

According to Jessica Ordóñez, Invest in Latam sustainability director, US electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla has confirmed its participation in the Monterrey event and this year’s Mexico City summit. In Monterrey, the Elon Musk company is expected to disclose further plans for the US$5bn gigafactory it looks to build in Santa Catarina, Nuevo León. 

Other confirmed participants for Mexico City are Siemens, GeoTab, Hitachi, Enel X and Aleatica. 

“There are many players that are present, new players and then there’s the connection with the North American market. There is a lot of investment that we see with all the potential and that is why we have full faith that it will be one of the largest markets where we will be present, in addition to Colombia, Chile, Brazil and now two cities in Mexico,” she said. 

Invest in Latam, a private sector initiative that promotes PPPs in the region, will also release in October its first sustainable mobility report for Mexico, which will include an overview of the country’s energy obstacles and areas of opportunity. 

“Mexico has a very big challenge, and that is that before decarbonizing transportation, it has to worry about its energy matrix,” García said. 

“To talk about the decarbonization of transport via electricity, it first has to talk about where that energy will come from. For that, we have to start talking about serious projects in electricity generation, otherwise Mexico will no longer be attractive for investment in five years under ESG principles,” he said.